Preventing Sexual Harassment: A Guide for Delaware Supervisors

Course Description:

Not only is sexual harassment illegal, but it also has many detrimental effects on the workplace and workforce. Our workplace also has a formal policy that prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace—a policy supervisors are responsible for enforcing. Additionally, Delaware requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide interactive training and education to supervisors on the prevention of sexual harassment. Your supervisors need to understand how to enforce your workplace policies and their role in enforcing those policies. This course will help supervisors recognize, respond to, and prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

Sexual harassment is a form of illegal employment discrimination that can be both costly and damaging. To comply with federal and state employment laws, employers must prevent sexual harassment whenever possible and correct it if it occurs, and that starts with supervisors.
Sexual harassment creates a negative work environment in which people are tense, fearful, uncomfortable, and often humiliated.
Sexual harassment often interferes with effective job performance, and it undermines trust and respect and makes good working relationships impossible.
Sexual harassment also exposes the organization to liability. Employees subjected to sexual harassment on the job can sue their employer for damages.
If a supervisor knows about harassment, the employer is assumed to know about the harassment for liability purposes—whether the supervisor reported the harassment or not.

Key Points:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the NYHRL, and the NYCHRL prohibit sexual harassment in the workplace. Employers must take steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and, should harassment occur, take corrective action to stop the harassment and prevent it from recurring. Supervisors should always respond promptly and effectively to any sexual harassment they observe or that is reported to them. Anyone at any level in the organization can commit sexual harassment or be harassed. Employers can be liable for quid pro quo harassment and hostile work environment harassment.